I just finished this week's episode. The discussion about The Killing Joke was very thought-provoking. I loved that book when I read it in high school, mostly because it put those characters in such a dark and adult-oriented story, which at the time was groundbreaking.
I think Barbara's treatment was a by-product of that era's creators being eager to put adult themes in their comics. I'm not defending it, and Meg's rant against the book is valid, but I think that was Moore's reason for subjecting Barbara to all that torture in the book. It's not the first time he did something like that either...look at how the original Silk Spectre was treated in Watchmen. And he calls Frank Miller mysoginistic. It is disturbing that it's so prevalent in so-called "all ages" comics nowadays, though. I wrote a similarly-themed column a few months ago about how children have been treated in mainstream comics lately.
Anyway, good episode, ladies. Keep up the great work!